Bottle carrier



April 17, 1962 R. E. DE PAUL' 3,029,999 BOTTLE CARRIER Filed June 2, 1960 3 Sheets-Sheet l R. E. DE PAUL BOTTLE CARRIER April 17, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 2, 1960 BOTTLE CARRIER 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed June 2, 1960 nited States Patent P 3,029,999 BOTTLE CARRIER Richard E. De Paul, Norristown, Pa., assignor to Container Corporation of America, Chicago, 11]., a corporation of Delaware Filed June 2, 1960, Ser. No. 33,540 Claims. (Cl. 229-40) The present invention relates to paperboard cartons, and more particularly to cartons, of open end, wraparound style designed to carry two rows of bottles.

One, object of the invention is to provide an improved form of open end carrier for bottles in which the carrier has central retaining members located on the bottom panel at the open ends, combined with supplemental retaining members arranged in the carrier to engage the end bottles at points spaced from the central retaining members and adjacent the side walls.

A further object of the invention is to provide an efficient form of wrap-around paperboard carrier constructed in such a manner that bottles or similar cylindrical articles will be held within the carrier with a maximum degree of snugness of fit which will tend to keep the bottles or similar articles in fixed position relative to the bottom and side walls.

Additional and more specific objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.

in the drawings- FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of the carrier loaded with bottles;

FIG. 2 is an end view on a somewhat larger scale,

showing the supplemental retaining members as well as a central retaining member;

FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional view, taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2, showing the central and supplemental retaining members;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view showing the construction of the lower portion of the carrier;

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the blank from which this form of the carrier is preferably constructed;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of the lower portion of a carrier illustrating a modified form of supplemental retaining member at each of'the corners of the bottom panel;

KG. 7 is a fragmentary detail, sectional view taken on line 77 of FIG. 6, looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary plan view on a reduced scale showing a form of blank from which this modified form of carrier may be made;

FIG. 9 is a vertical sectional view taken along line 99 of FIG. 10, showing another modified form of the invention in which bottle engaging and retaining edges are provided by cutting curved slits in the bottom forming sections;

FIG. 10 is a horizontal sectional view taken along line lli]lti of FIG. 9; and

HG. 11 is a plan view on a reduced scale showing a form of blank from which this modified form of carrier may be made.

The present invention provides supplemental bottle retaining means designed to cooperate with a rigid, upstand- In certain instances by employing cut and crease scored to provide a central top panel 10, side wall panels 11 and 12 and two rectangular bottom sections 13 and 14 designed to be joined in overlapping relation to form a composite bottom panel. The carton or carrier as shown is constructed to hold cylindrical.

bottles, and while the invention is particularly suitable for bottles it is contemplated that the invention may also be employed to advantage for carrying filled cylindrical cans as well as other cylindrical articles with or without a reduced size neck portion typical of bottles.

The top panel is die cut to provide two rows of openings 15, 15, through which the necks of bottles 16, 16 may extend. See FIG. 1'. The top 10, includes two sloping panels 10a, 10a, defined from the main portion 10 by fold lines l7, l7 and from the side wall panels by fold lines 18, 18. These portions 10a generally conform to the slope of the rounded shouldersof the bottles.

The bottom sections 12 and 13 are secured in overlapping relation in any convenient manner, as by means of adhesive applied to the edge portion of either section.

In order to enclose the bottles within the carrier :1 con' venient procedure is to group the bottles on a support and bring the center panel 10 down so that the bottle necks are received within the die cut openings 15. The sides and bottom sections are then brought down and adhesive is applied to one bottom section. The group of bottles may then be moved onto a support in the form of a thin blade and the bottom sections are then brought up beneath the blade into overlapping relation. The top, sides and bottom sections, including the sloping portions 10a, 1611 will be wrapped snugly about the bottle group and held until the adhesive has set. The package is then slid endwise off the blade support. The particular wrapping and gluing method is immaterial except that the method employed is preferably such that the bottles will be held in snug engagement by the carrier walls. Prior to the wrapping of the bottles it is preferable to separate them by a suitable partition member as shown at 20.

At each open end of the carrier there is formed a relatively rigid, upstanding retaining member indicated as a whole at 21. This form of retaining member is disclosed and claimed in the pending application of Francis A. Chidsey, Jr., Serial No. 791,298, filed Feb. 5, 1959, such application being assigned to the assignee of the present application. The retaining member, as shown in FIG. 5, is formed from two sets of triangular portions provided at the corners of the bottom sections. The triangular portions on bottom section 13 are indicated at 22 and 23 and those on bottom section 14 are indicated at 24 and 25. The portions 23 and 25 are severed from their bottom sections along respective slits 26, 26 and 27, 27. The portions 23 and 25 are hingedly carried on the respective portions 22 and 24 along fold lines 28, 28 and 29, 29, and portions 22 and 24 are hingedly carried on their bottom sections along respective fold lines 38), 30 and 31, 31.

The portions forming the retaining members remain in the planes of their bottom sections until the blank has been wrapped around the group of bottles. These portions may then be brought to their operative position by applying upward pressure on the underlying portions, these being in the present instance portions 22 and 23.

As these portions are lifted to their upright position with in contact with portions 24 and 25. Thus, the two sets Patented Apr. 17, 1962 of triangular portions may readily be secured in raised position, and in such position the retaining member formed by these portions will remain in firm contact with the end bottles of each row.

The supplemental retaining means in this form of the invention comprises tabs 33 and 34 on the respective bottom sections 13 and 14. These tabs may be of any desired contour and are herein shown as rectangular and formed by slitting along three sides and impressing a fold line on the fourth side, such fold line's being indicated at 35 and 36. The tabs are formed to swing outwardly at an angle of approximately 45 to the carrier side wall panels and the location of the fold lines is along a line tangent to the surface of the bottle to be engaged.

In the assembly procedure the tabs 33 and 34 are preferably folded to bottle engagingcondition just before the individual bottom sections 13 and 14 are swung up into position beneath the bottles. After both bottom sec' tions are in their overlapped relation and for a short interval prior to raising the central retaining members 21 into position, the tabs 33 and 34 may be the sole retaining members engaging the bottles and may thus serve to hold the bottle group in snug relation preparatory to the upward folding of the portions forming the central retaining members.

The supplemental retaining members remain in bottle engaging relation until the bottles are removed from the carrier and serve to reinforce the retention provided by the central, upstanding members. The supplemental retaining members also provide a margin of safety, tending to prevent bottles from accidental escape from the carrier open ends in the possible event that one of the central retaining members is not properly glued.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8, the construction of the carrier is the same as in the first described embodiment except for the supplemental retaining members indicated as a whole at 41, 41 and 42, 42, provided jointly by the respective side panels and bottom sections 11a, 13a and 12a, 14a.

The retaining members 41 and 42 are identical, except reversed on opposite edges of the blank. A detailed description of one of the retaining members will sufiice. Referring to members 41, each comprises two hingedly connected sections 43 and 44, joined along the crease line 45. Section 43 is cut from side wall 12a and hinged thereto along crease line 46, and section 44 is cut from the bottom forming section 13a and is hinged thereto along crease line 47. The section 43 is preferably cut along a curved lineto conform to the bottle curvature and the location of the curved edge is preferably such that it will engage an end bottle which also will be engaged by the central retaining member 21a.

The supplemental retaining members 41 and 42 are preferably formed of equal length measured at right angles to the hinge line between the bottom section and its attached side wall. Thus, when the member is in bottle engaging position the section 43 will be approximately parallel with the bottom and section 44 will be approximately parallel with the side wall.

The retaining members 41 and 42 may be folded inward to their bottle engaging positions simultaneously with the folding of the bottom sections against the bottoms of the bottles. However, if desired, the inward folding of these members may be left until the central retaining members are erected. tions 43 and 44 are subjected to some degree of temporary deformation but this does not detract appreciably from the ability of the members to serve as supplemental retention means.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 9, and 11, the construction of the carrier is substantially the same as in the first two described embodiments, except that the supplemental retaining members have no upwardly foldable parts. In this construction particular advantage is taken of the fact that the carrier In such event, the secblank will be wrapped snugly about the bottle group and secured in such condition. By forming a displaceable portion in the bottom sectionsfor each bottle, other portions of the bottom sections may be held in raised position relative to the bottoms of the bottles. The edges of these raised portions may then serve as retaining members where they engage the vertical sides of the bottles.

Referring to the drawings, FIG. 10 shows bottles in place on the composite bottom of the carrier and, along the hinge lines between the bottom sections 13b and 14b and their respective attached side walls 11b and 12b, there are formed slits 50, 50, preferably of arcuate shape, in bottom section 13b, and slits 51, 51 in bottom section 14b. These slits provide downwardly displaceable, relatively rigid tongue portions 52, 52 on bottom section 13b and tongue portions 53, 53 on bottom section 14b. At the ends of the sections and in between the tongue portions are areas of the bottom sections, indicated at 5411 and 54b, and 55a and 55b, which, being joined directly to the side walls, will remain in position as the tongues are being downwardly displaced. The top and sloping panels of the carrier and also the side walls are preferably so proportioned relative to the height of bottles to be enclosed that the lower edges of the side walls will not extend down even with the bottom surfaces of the bottles. Thus, when the carrier is secured about the bottle group, the hinge lines between the side walls and bottom walls are slightly above the bottoms of the bottles. This creates a gap or space at the slits 50 and 51 and the edges of the stock adjacent the side walls will be in lateral contacting relation to the bottle sides. Each bottle will thus be engaged by the curved concave edges of the areas adjacent the side walls. Since the bottles are firmly held by the side walls against transverse shifting, the curved edges embracing each bottle will resist shifting of the bottles in a direction axially of the carrier through its open ends.

In order to resist the tendency of the slits to tear due to spreading apart of the paperboard stock on each side of the slit, each slit is preferably formed with inwardly curved end portions the general direction of which is radially of the curvature of the slits.

By having the effective length of the side walls such that the lower edges of these walls will not normally extend down to a line in register with the bottoms of the bottles it is obvious that the snug Wrapping of the walls of the carrier around a group of bottles will spread the stock on each side of the slits 50 and 51 so that the concave outer edge portions formed by the slit will embrace the bottles a small distance above the lower ends of the bottles and thus hold the bottles in place.

From the foregoing description of the several embodiments of the invention, it should be evident to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of this invention as defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An open end carrier formed from foldable paperboard and adapted to enclose two rows of bottles or similar articles, such rows being aligned with the axis of the carrier through its open ends, said carrier comprising top, side and bottom walls hingedly interconnected along parallel hinge lines and adapted to engage the contained bottles snugly to resist lateral shifting, the length of the carrier between its open ends being approximately equal to the length of the bottle rows, a retaining member comprising two portions located at the open end of the carrier and formed from wall portions cut from adjacent areas of the bottom and a side wall, such portions being hinged to their respective walls and to each other along hinge lines which are parallel to said first mentioned hinge lines and being foldable inwardly of the carrier to engage edgewise against the outer, vertical surface of a bottle at the open end of the carrier.

2. An open end paperboard carrier adapted to enclose two rows of bottles or similar articles, such rows being aligned with the axis of the carrier through its open ends, said carrier comprising hingedly connected top, side and bottom wall panels adapted to engage the bottles snugly to resist lateral shifting, the length of the carrier between its open ends being approximately equal to the length of the bottle rows, central retaining members formed from overlapping portions of the bottom wall and disposed adjacent respective outer ends of the carrier substantially midway between the carrier side walls, pairs of side retaining members formed from the bottom wall and comprising narrow panel portions hinged to the bottom wall along hinge lines located respectively between the central retaining members and the side walls and substantially parallel to the hinge lines between the bottom and side walls to present an edge contact with the adjacent vertical surfaces of end bottles in the rows to resist outward displacement of the bottles at the ends of the carrier, and means for holding the respective side retaining members in raised position.

3. An open end paperboard carrier adapted to enclose two rows of bottles or similar articles, such rows being aligned with the axis of the carrier through its open ends, said carrier comprising hingedly connected top, side and bottom wall panels adapted to engage the bottles snugly to resist lateral shifting, the length of the carrier between its open ends being approximately equal to the length of the bottle rows, pairs of side retaining members formed from the bottom wall and comprising narrow panel portions hinged to the bottom wall along hinge lines spaced inwardly of the side walls and substantially parallel to the hinge lines between the bottom and side walls, said panel portions being adapted to be folded to raised position to present edge contact with the adjacent vertical surfaces of end bottles in the rows to resist outward displacement of the bottles at the open ends of the carrier, and means for holding the respective side retaining members relatively rigidly in their raised positions.

4. An open end carrier according to claim 3, in which the means for holding each of the side retaining members in raised position comprises pairs of secondary panels each cut from a side wall adjacent the respective, upwardly raised retaining members and integrally joined to the latter along a fold line.

5 An open end carrier according to claim 4, in which each secondary panel has a concave, bottle-engaging edge extending from a point adjacent the upper end of its companion raised retaining member to the point where the secondary panel meets the plane of the side wall from which it is cut.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,222,211 Arneson Nov. 19, 1940 2,333,560 Gray Nov. 2, 1943 2,851,210 Kramer et a1 Sept. 9, 1958 2,872,036 Forrer Feb. 3, 1959 2,877,894 Forrer Mar. 17, 1959 2,922,561 Currivan Jan. 26, 1960 2,965,410 Hughes Dec. 20, 1960 

